September 09, 2009

Whatever healthcos want, they get. Unless we shout out.

Almost everyone wrongly believes that Medicare was heroically enacted over the objections of the health insurers. This is yet another widely accepted myth that just ain't so. True, the healthcos fought Medicare for years, and successfully blocked it - until it was no longer profitable for them to insure those over 65. The industry then dropped its opposition, urged "reform", and Medicare was promptly enacted. The bill enabling government health insurance for seniors, very popular then and now, passed in 1965 with the blessing of the healthcos.

Private health insurers have thrived since then primarily by selling insurance for those under 65. But as higher prices drive enrollments down, they are now fast losing customers. They need a government handout to stay viable. So, once again, they support "reform" - this time, to get the government mandates and subsidies they know they need.

The "reform" they want will put them on the dole, with a transfusion directly to insurers from the public till. This is not a temporary bailout, it's permanent life support, with $1 trillion of government subsidies flowing to them over just the next ten years. It will keep the insurers healthy, enabling them to continue imposing useless overhead costs on policy holders - $3 trillion in the next decade, all down the drain, none of it for actual healthcare services.

The ten year total of over $4 trillion is about $13,000 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. We will pay out, as taxpayers or policyholders, more than $50,000 for every family of four, just to keep the healthcos in business, not for any discernible value-add they can even claim to deliver.

Enough of this nonsense. Shout out for single-payer Medicare For All, to be voted on in the House this fall. It's uniquely American and will cover everyone efficiently, costing less than we pay now for healthcare. It will save taxpayers the $1 trillion the new subsidies would otherwise cost over ten years, and instead of enabling continued waste of $3 trillion on overhead, it would divert that money to improving Medicare and extending it to cover everyone, no exceptions.